So we need to eat less red meat. That’s what the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee says.

That’s a group of “experts” who get together every five years and make recommendations on what Americans should and should not eat. Although there will be a public comment period with an opportunity to change, their conclusions are confusing. And a bit misleading.

The good news is you can drink more coffee, eat more eggs and don’t have to worry much about dietary cholesterol. The bad news is, while they said lean meat can be part of a healthy diet, they recommend eating less of it.

The Texas beef checkoff has been passed and implemented and new dollars are funding our beef promotion and research efforts. Yet some individuals continue to spread misinformation when it comes to this self-help effort. Since most of the claims and arguments I hear against the Texas beef checkoff are false or misleading, I’d like the truth to be out there.

Some agencies of the federal government have learned that a “carrot and stick” approach often works. Proposed changes in the Clean Water Act by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) amount to “stick and bigger stick.”

Sometimes you see the “carrot” in enforcement of the Endangered Species Act. Things like Safe Harbor and habitat mitigation mean having a species does not force landowners out of business. Then, other things become possible.

The EPA will move forward with a vast expansion of the agency’s regulatory power with changes in the Clean Water Act. Perhaps as an olive branch, EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently announced the withdrawal of their waters of the U.S. “interpretive rule.”